J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Jan I Stenmark

Pavel,

There are two things I would never do (well maybe more but I'm thinking just about this thread!)

1. Recommend a restaurant
2. Recommend a ski

Everyone should follow your advice and select a ski depending on their own requirements! And eat the food and wine THEY like!

Jan

Only a small point but it’s possibly worth mentioning. Motorway driving in Austria is paid for by a little sticker known as a Vignette, these cost very little, currently €7.60 for 10 days but if you are caught without one you will have to pay a heavy fine …

Coming from Munich you will be able to buy one from the motorway services at the boarder (Kufstein).

You might think that your hire car will come with a prepaid Vignette but it’s my experience that this never happens.

Also, depending on your hire company, make sure you ensure you are provided with a Hi-Visibility vest. It’s compulsory to carry one of these in Austria.

Happy motoring,

Jan

Pavel,

As in life so it is in skiing or at least ski selection.

One thing that you didn’t mention is that life is always a compromise!

Have you ever met a woman who is perfectly happy to work hard to make your home perfect, to give up her own needs for the sake of your children, who is prepared to spend many hours cooking on a Sunday to make the perfect roast, who never complains when she has to scrub the toilet bowl?

Now is this lady the same one who will give up everything on the strength of a hunch to go and explore the Amazon Jungle, the one who will risk her life to trek single-handed to some unexplored land without a care for her own security, the one who will bet the house on an unseen card?

Unless you live in Toon-Town, I bet the answer is a big fat NO!

I think the same is true with skis.

Lets look at your points (err, those of Realskier.com)

Are the properties of point 4 compatible with point 5?
Can a ski that scores high on point 5 also score high on point 6?
Can a ski be both good at points 3 & 11?

You list some important points to consider when choosing the perfect ski, but one point you forgot to mention is that every choice is a compromise.

You cannot have a ski that turns like lightning and is also totally stable at high speed; no ski will demonstrate “quickness” while also being “forgiving”.

The choice is always about which of these characteristics is more important than another, which feature am I prepared to give up to achieve another?

No-one will ever find a ski that can score a 10 on all points from 1 to 12 (13 is a slight mystery to me).

The best we can hope for is that having thought about our requirements we opt for the best relationship to serve our needs, not for a single ability that sounds amazing on paper but which becomes unmanageable in reality.

Happy hunting,

Jan

Dear MrSnowGod,

Please can you have a word with your driver as he has left his delivery right across my drive, right down our road and as far as I can see, and now I can't get out of my house!

What's more he left a card to say that he has another delivery booked for both Saturday and Sunday! - Please sort it out!

Furthermore, my Dr says being confined to my wine celler (err sorry, house) is not good for me.

Best wishes,

Mr Jan

Err this was deffo one of the items on Pavel's wall.

Pav: Is it too late to claim the point?

Jan

Hahaha!

But if you look REAL close at 01:35 into the clip you will see "Ise" Freeheelin' UP the hill :)

Guess anyone can use gravity to fall down a hill!!

... aw shuks thou the boy did good!!

Jan

Bend zee nees!

How well is that phase entrenched into the mythology of skiing and ski-instruction?

I’d like to explore that phrase and I hope other keen minded skiers will join me. However, my main purpose for starting this thread is to provide beginners & intermediates with some (hopefully) interesting reading about the basics of skiing.

So, let’s think about that phrase, “Bend The Knees”, why would experienced, professional ski instructors throughout the Alps find this phrase tripping so lightly off the tongue? (As an aside it would be very interesting to know if there is any similar phrase used in North America, Australasia, South America, Japan, the Ex-USSR, etc).

Why indeed?

Let’s imagine a robot standing in ski boots, clicked into bindings on a pair of long skis on flat, dry ground. If the skier, sorry, robot is standing in a balanced posture (rare enough in itself I know!) and it is given the instruction to bend its knees (and ONLY its knees), what would happen?

The picture I see in my mind is that the whole of the robot’s body, from the bottom of the thigh upwards, would lean backwards until the whole upper body was horizontal with the ground. Further bending would result in the back of the robots head striking the ground.

Ok, Ok, so this is not what Franz, Georg or Michelle had hoped for, but what had they hoped for?

I suspect they had secretly hoped that the robot would gently lower its posture, while remaining upright. So perhaps a more helpful instruction would be to say “Bend you knees and also compensate by closing your hip angle” … Hmmm, not quite so jazzy.

But would this do the trick?

Now we have a robot with a flexed knee and the upper body brought forward by the hip being brought into action. Grommit, I think we’ve cracked it!

Well not quite. The problem is that now we have a robot with vertical shins! All the weight is acting behind the centre of the foot! (Try this yourself – I can already picture Ellistine doing this in the kitchen. Stand upright and then flex JUST the knees and hip) The effect is rather like lowering yourself onto the loo (John). Now imagine there is no seat to sit on. Suddenly you have to contract all the major muscle systems in your legs and lower back to stop yourself falling over.

So what went wrong? Why did the improved instruction from Jozef not place us in the perfect skiing position?

One very simple and yet nearly forgotten cousin of the knee and hip. The Talus Joint!

Let me say that again for those new to the human skeleton, “The Ankle!”

Now, when Frau Heidi roars up the beginners piste she will doubtless be intoning, “Bend your knees! but compensate this inclination by a corresponding flexion of the waist AND ankle!”

Why so much fuss about such a minor joint? Because if I could help to get just one skier this coming season to discover their ankles then I would be a happy chappy!

Try this one for yourself. Next time you are being whisked up the hill, watch those who are coming down. Now try and pick a person who looks like they are doing well and ask yourself, “What are their ankles doing?” Now spot a struggler and ask the same question. Chances are that if you have a properly calibrated eyeball you will have noticed that the difference lies in the amount of flexion and extension they created in their ankles.

*** Warning – Danger ahead ***

Now, if you really fancy finding out about your ankles (and your health insurance is up-to-date) try finding a quiet, smooth, relatively flat piste. Stand across the fall-line and undo all your boot clips, power straps and other retaining elements. Now very carefully start to edge your skis gently towards the fall-line. Once you start moving IMMEDIATELY start to control your speed, either by ploughing or by a gentle skidded turn. Once you have your speed under some kind of vague control attempt some turns that you would normally consider to be your most confident.

What happened?

To some extent this will depend on your boot design. Rear entry types will give at least some support to those who are positioned too far forward, whilst probably dumping those whose “weight” is too far back on the floor. On the other hand, front entry boots may support the “weight too far back” brigade whilst giving a nasty turn (no pun intended) to the weight forward gang.

I have used this drill with many, many “apparently” able skiers (and not a few racers) only to find them begging to do their clips up.

With sensitivity and practice it is perfectly possible to ski with all clips undone but take one word of warning, don’t, whatever you do “Bend zee nees” unless you are prepared to flex at the waist AND ankles too!!

One final thought. When buying boots, consider the merits of buying boots, the marketing dept. of which have liberally splashed the words “Racing” or “High Performance” about them. If they are truly “Racing” boots, do you have the strength, determination and ability to flex those beasts? Do you really want to? Chances are that a boot with a lower flex index will give you the opportunity to get to know your ankles without doing permanent damage to the musculature of your lower leg!

Happy Talus Flexing!

Jan

Pavel,

I spent my childhood wishing to stay indoors and play quiet games but my mother insisted that I go out and risk my neck undertaking evermore dangerous sports, being an unloved child can be a real trial!

… but back to the thread I think the Leeks can be found here http://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/2088.page

I found myself choking up as I read it – Thanks Pav 8)

Jan